Royal Society. 47^ 
for fome time with them, and viewed the harbour we came a- 
board : The 4th we came into the great harbour of Caledonia^ 
which is a very good one, being about a league in length from 
N. W. to S. E. about half a mile broad at the mouth 5 and fur- 
ther on, a mile or more in ibme places j it is large enough to con- 
tain 500 fail of /liips^ the greateft part of it is land locked, ib 
that it is fafe from any wind that blows 5 the harbour and the fea 
make the land lying between them a ^Peninfula , there is a point 
of the Penlnfula at the mouth of the harbour, that might be 
fortified againft a whole fleets it fecures the harbour, io that no 
/hip can enter but what will be within reach of its guns ; it alfo 
defends half the 'Peninfula ; no guns from the other fide of the 
harbour can hurt it, nor dare any fhip carrying guns enter for the 
breaft-work at the point j the other fide o^ the Peninfula is either 
a precipice, or defended againft fliips by fhoals and breaches, ib 
that there is only the narrow neck which is not fortified by na- 
ture 5 yet it maybe fortified by art, and made impregnable- and 
there is land enough within it, if it were all cultivated, that 
might yield 1000 hogflieads of fugar every year^ the foil is rich, 
the air good and temperate, the water Iweet, and every thinw 
contributes to make it both healthful and convenient 5 in thehar^ 
hour and creeks hereabouts, are turtles, manatees, and a vaft va- 
riety of very good imall fifh, from the bignefs of a falmon to that 
of a perch ; the land affords monkeys of different forts, as alio 
wild deer, Indian rabbits, wild hogs, parrots of feveral kinds, 
paroqueets, macaws, pelicans and a hundred more we have no 
name for; befides, there are land-crabs, fouldiers, land-turtles, 
lizzards, guanha's, cock-lizzards, and fcorpions, partridges, phea- 
fants and a fort of turkey; all the birds in this country are beau- 
tiful, but none that we could obferve had any notes; we have a 
monkey on board that chirps like a lark, but will never be big- 
ger than a rat ; this place affords vaft numbers of monftrous 
plants, fome of their leaves exceeding three ells irt length, and at 
the fame time very broad; befides thele, which are reducible to 
no tribe, there are a great many of the European fpecies (but 
ftill have fomething odd about them) as Lingua rem;?^ of diffe- 
rent forts, Filix or fern of different kinds, ^olypodium, leveral 
of the Tlantee papilionace<e, mufci, fungi^ convohuli, and a 
great many more. 
The people are generally very civil and fagacious, have all of 
them good features, are of a low ftature, but very well built; 
they are of a copper-colour and have black hair; they ufed to go 
naked, but are now as well cloathed as we are, they wear a plate of 
Vol. III. Ooo gold 
